Maseo
Maseo (formerly codenamed Snake during his time as an assassin) is the Mayor of Lumiose City, a former assassin and brother of the late Nyssa. During Cindy Wilson's adventures on Rengoku no Keimusho and in Lumiose City, Maseo was a prominent ally, making him by extension an ally to the Knights of Pokeplitrule. His appearance is that of an aged man, with long white hair and wrinkled skin, thanks to his curse, but he is in reality only in his late 30's. Retired from physical violence, he now works with Sycamore to keep Lumiose City safe and improving as the Mayor, and he cares for Rose Wilson. Background Early Life Maseo grew up with his younger sister Nyssa. At some point early in their lives, their parents died, so Maseo actively took care of his younger sister. At some point, Maseo became a soldier in the army, but left soon after because of a curse that was cast on him. The curse made it so that Maseo would be painfully aged instead of dying should he be inflicted with a fatal wound, and he decided to keep it a secret. Later, Maseo was recruited into the Zodiac Ninja team of mercenary assassins, being useful due to his military training. He bonded with the team as if they were brothers, especially with the leader, "Dragon". He had an antagonistic relationship with Rooster specifically, though, and they frequently argued. One day, while they camped up in a mountain, Maseo drank water frequently, setting Rooster off because of his "greediness". Rooster was fed up with Maseo for the last time, ranting about how Maseo was the worst, so Maseo roasted him and Dragon killed him afterwards in secret, tossing his body off a cliff. Dragon then called up a friend of his and offered him to join as the new Rooster. The following day, when the new Rooster was trying to kindly speak with Maseo, Maseo spat and roasted him again, pissing him off as much as the last Rooster, leading Maseo to believe nothing had changed. Later, Dragont trained Maseo in torture and dismembering. Maseo proved to be a quick learner. However, he didn't like the excessive, gory, unnecessary deaths his teammates were fond of dishing out, and eventually, he decided to quit. Only Dragon respected his decision, and covered him while he ran away as the others went to stop him. After returning home, Maseo was tracked down by the villainous General Thawne, who knew Maseo from their army days, and Nyssa was kidnapped. Maseo received a message: He had to go to a remote island known as Rengoku no Keimusho, Japanese for Prison of Purgatory, and aid Thawne in his terrorist plot or else Nyssa would die slowly and painfully. Left with no choice, Maseo made the journey, and worked as a ninja for Thawne on the island as his plans progressed. He knew Nyssa was kept there, too, and was given brief moments to speak with her as rewards for when he did something Thawne liked. Stopping General Thawne Eventually, Maseo ran away from the mercenaries when he found out that Nyssa had escaped. One night, lurking silently in the woods, Maseo heard shouts and gunshots. He arrived by a waterfall, and there, Nyssa, Eobard Clariss, and Cindy Wilson were hopelessly fighting for their lives against General Thawne and his men. Maseo arrived at the nick of time to fight off several mercenaries, giving his sister and her new friends the chance to swim across the river to escape. Caught off guard, Maseo was eventually taken down in a hail of bullets, causing Nyssa to return for him. Eobard covered them by throwing knives, and Cindy went to help Nyssa make her way across the river with the heavily injured Maseo. Eobard, sacrificing himself for their escape, was heavily wounded as well and Cindy dragged him away. At the old, crashed plane fuselage that Cindy called home, Eobard and Maseo recovered. Maseo learned about Eobard and Cindy and eventually fell asleep. The next day, he trained with the others, but they were interrupted when Thawne sent a trio of soldiers to inspect the area. Maseo spooked them away with the head of a wolf they hunted before for food, and he proceeded to argue with the others about what to do next. Eobard revealed he had swiped a circuit board from Thawne's missile launcher, but they couldn't agree on what to do with it. A few days later, Maseo and the others were still unsure of what do do, but regardless kept training with each other and kept each other alive. However, one day Maseo walked in on Eobard and Nyssa passionately making out, causing him to explode with rage, brutally attacking Eobard with no holds barred. With no choice but to defend himself, Eobard fought back, but eventually their noisy battle got the attention of a group of patrolling mercenaries. The mercenaries came and captured them, causing Maseo to feel terribly guilty over his actions. Having re-obtained the circuit board, Thawne was ready to complete his plans, tricking a commercial airplane to fly near the island for Thawne to shoot it down with his massive missile launcher, the Fenrir. He forced Maseo to record a confession saying that it was he who shot down the plane in revenge for what happened during his army days. Maseo apologized to his friends and then, out of nothing but cruelty, Thawne shot him clean through the skull. Proceeding with his terrorist plot as if nothing happened, Thawne prepared the Fenrir for launch. Unfortunately for Thawne, Maseo was resurrected by his curse and aged once again. Maseo came back too late to help the others stop the missile launch, but they succeeded regardless. The missile instead hit the mercenary camp, and Maseo was protected from it by the roof of the tent in which he had been shot, which collapsed on him. Once he crawled out, he encountered Cindy and Eobard. They all searched for Nyssa and found Thawne holding her at gunpoint. Cindy aimed an arrow at him, and, despite Maseo's pro-life sentiments and wishes to spare Thawne, Cindy shot the arrow straight through Thawne's neck, saving Nyssa and putting Thawne out for good. Conflict with Professor Thawne For about a year, the four of them lived together, trying to build a radio out of the Fenrir to call for help. Eobard and Nyssa stopped their romance after how Maseo reacted the first time. They had no luck in building a radio, and one day, a group of men with powers over the earth assaulted them. Maseo was the first to be knocked out when an earth jutsu smashed him into unconsciousness. After the ninjas were defeated, Eobard having lost control of himself and bloodily murdered the final one, Maseo woke up and asked Eobard about what happened. Eobard guiltily said nothing was wrong and helped Maseo get back to the plane to recover, and they agreed that they had to be ready in case more ninjas appeared. Having been nearly killed by the ninjas, Cindy was left with a bleeding scar on her neck. Maseo, seeing this and knowing the supernatural abilities possessed by the ninjas, decided to go against his anti-killing morals and told them to go for the kill when they had the chance against the ninjas. A bag left by a ninja revealed to them that the ninjas were looking for something called "the graves" and they came from a boat. Cindy told them of what she believed to be the graves, but she was unsure of exactly where they were, so they decided to split up and search for them separately in groups of two. Maseo chose to be with Eobard because he did not want him to be alone with Nyssa, and Nyssa uneasily agreed, being doubtful of Eobard's self control after what he did to the ninja earlier. Maseo also began using Thawne's powerful sword as his own. Rise of Eobard to be added Rejoining an old friend Maseo was depressed, and, with the world thinking him dead, he became an alcoholic and eventually found himself in Lumiose City. Seeing how everything was bad, he decided to start helping people, but his attempts at rebuilding the plant shop resulted in a seedy bar that he ran alone. The job kept him occupied, and he used it to drown away his sorrows. One day, he saw Eobard outside, and he entered the supposedly abandoned location next to the bar, causing Maseo to wonder if he was hallucinating or something. He was located by Eobard, who had become insane and evil in sharp contrast to his good-heartedness on the island, and Eobard monitored his bar for some time before Sin found it and uncovered Eobard. Eobard fought Maseo to the seeming death but Maseo recovered thanks to his curse, and later reappeared to help Sin when she was attempting to break into the old Team Flare lab. From there he joined Sin and her friends in their mission to stop Eobard, and they fought off many attacks together sent their way by their former friend while planning to defeat him once and for all. However, when they learned Eobard planned to level the city with a man made earthquale, they were forced to charge into his tower with no plan and hope for the best. Maseo was separated from Sin when they reached a floor where the assassin Gregor was stationed, and after a brutal fight with the Russian Maseo returned to the team's hideout. From there he encouraged Sin and cheered her on during her final battle with the clone of her created by Eobard, who had mysteriously disappeared. However, despite the clone's defeat and the earthquake device's destruction, a second earthquake machine was revealed and activated. Sin managed to shut it down, but not before it caused some serious damage to the city; Maseo managed to get out of the building in time safely along with Augustine Sycamore, but their friend Clemont was trapped inside the collapsing building and was killed. They mourned the loss afterwards and spent some time helping the city recover while trying to get any leads on Eobard's location. Physical Appearance Maseo just gets older and older. His hair grows longer than normal, too, so he keeps it in a super long ponytail. Personality Maseo is very noble, and he cares for his friends a lot. Now he has to care for an entire city since he's the mayor. Stats At this point, all he really has left is his intelligence. He also may or may not hit the gym in his free time despite his aged condition. Trivia * Nega got the name from the character Maseo Yamashiro, a minor character from the book Katana: Soultaker# 1. http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Katana:_Soultaker_(Collected). * The eyepatch briefly worn by Maseo after his eye got stabbed out, before his subsequent regeneration, combined with the super long white ponytail, was reference to the villain Slade in the show Young Justice. * The mayoral oath Maseo gave was identical to the one Demm gave during his inauguration. Nega likes to keep things consistent. References # http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Katana:_Soultaker_(Collected)